


What the TV Taught Me

by Gorned



Series: Our History (Too Much Adamantium) [2]
Category: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
Genre: Character Study, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-15
Updated: 2013-02-15
Packaged: 2017-11-29 09:49:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/685594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gorned/pseuds/Gorned
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wade Wilson has always had an obsession with television.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What the TV Taught Me

**Author's Note:**

> Pre-Wade/Logan.

A lot of people don’t understand Wade’s obsession with television. He’s been addicted to it since he can remember. If his parents were alive, they’d probably tell about how when Wade was a baby, he’d sit perfectly still and be content to stare at the television for hours on end when they let him. The moving pictures and sounds fascinated him and continued to fascinate him as he grew up and branched out into things shown on the silver screen.

Later, Wade would sweet-talk his way into a job at the movie theatre at age thirteen, sitting up in the booth and learning about the projectors and reels. Cigarette burns. It wasn’t so much about the learning for him, or the money at the time. A dollar an hour lasted him as long as a candy trip to the grocery store every morning on his way to school. Movies and TV shows meant a lot to Wade because they meant escape; from the wrath of an angry father, from the shouts and sobs of a beaten mother. Escape from all the taunts and jeers from classmate, the ever-echoing loneliness that crept into his chest when it got just this shade of quiet.

Television gave Wade templates of what he figured real families were like. He could base his replacement family ideals on characters that he loved. Beautiful mothers that didn’t cry their make-up off, fathers that would come home with a shiny briefcase and a smile instead of a reddened face and a clenched fist.

He spent a lot of time in his room watching TV and trying to ignore how much his bruises hurt and how much he hated baseball. He spent more time at the theatre when his mom came down with cancer, then contemplated not coming home at all when she died. The night he did, he lost anything he had left of family and discovered that he was good at more than memorizing things and making people feel awkward.

No matter what came and went in Wade’s life, be it falling in with mercenaries, a prostitute, a team of people who were  _different_  and ruthless, Wade watched a lot of television and movies when he could catch them.

“This the only time you ever shut up, Wilson?”

“Shhh, Lucy is about to do some esplainin’.”

Wade’s belly-down on the only couch again, nineteen years old. For once, the entire team is holed up in the rec room. Logan is unobtrusively reading the newspaper in the corner, Victor, Fred, and Wraith are playing cards, Bradley is sitting on the floor by Wade’s feet, and North is standing, hovering dead center behind the couch. He’s frowning, arms crossed over his chest, his pristine white button-down shirt and suspenders. Wade’s been content to ignore North’s presence and be ignored but today, David is picking on him.

“What would you do if there wasn’t a TV anymore, Wilson?” North questions. He leans forward, uncrossing his arms to rest them on the back of the couch. He looms over Wade, a smirk tugging at his lips.

Wade goes unnaturally still. His eyes don’t leave the screen.

“There’s always going to be a TV, Davey.” Wade says, tone light. “It’s the only thing Colonel lets me have. And he likes to keep me happy, you know. Because I’m the favorite and you’re not.”

Motion in the room ceases completely. Even Logan is watching carefully over the top of his paper. An audience laugh track rattles through tinny speakers.

North’s lips thin and his eyes narrow. He’s never liked being second-best to anybody, Wade least of all. He thinks Wade is cocky and dumb, a little kid with a fixation on candy and sharp objects. To North, it’s a wonder Wade hasn’t killed himself or gotten killed. Yet. His tolerance of Wade goes about as far as Stryker threatening to drop him, but he wonders if Stryker’s golden boy is as valued as everybody thinks.

There’s a shot. The TV screen smokes and sparks.

Wade’s a blur and North is on his back in front of the now-broken TV with one wakizashi buried between his fifth and sixth ribs and the other pressed against his throat. Bradley has scrambled away as far as he can manage, terrified because honestly — Wade’s scary when he’s set to kill.

The three playing cards don’t know whether to jump to North’s aid or stay out of Wade’s way. The TV they have — had — was old and nearly non-receptive. Black and white and bulky. The drooping rabbit ears that sat on top only added to its sad and sorry picture. It was enough for Wade, though. He was the only one who’d ever watched it anyway, even when Bradley wasn’t there to pipe in his favorite re-runs in a better quality.

Logan’s up and on his feet with the paper clenched in his fist and he’s staring down the back of Wade’s head with the utmost concentration.

“Wade.” He says, gruff voice unusually gentle. “Down.”

Wade bristles. His arm twitches like he’s going to decapitate North but without a word, he backs off. Two short knives in hand, blood dripping down his knuckles, Wade brushes past Logan as his long legs carry him out of the rec room. North is still groaning with pain on the floor, but the others are more fascinated with how Logan could get Wade to back down with a single command. None of them could get Wade to do anything, even with an in-depth essay about how much they adore him and sugared bribes.

Logan’s pretty amazed, himself.

In a control room on another part of the base, William Stryker watches the video playback with a grin on his face and thoughts burbling away in his mind. Later, when Logan reports back to him with news of Agent Zero in MedBay, he pretends he hadn’t already known about it. He waves off the incident without so much as a reprimand on Wade’s part because really, Wade is his golden boy. He has plans for Wilson.

A shiny new television shows up in the rec room three days later and the incident is forgotten by all but two.

 


End file.
